Tip: Use Your Dishwasher to Wash Produce

Washing vegetables under the faucet uses up a lot of water, even if you are efficient (keeping the faucet off when needed, and rinsing large amounts all at once). Long ago I considered washing produce in the dishwasher, but I didn’t actually try it until reading about it in unplgged.

You can see from the picture how I distributed the vegetable in the upper and lower racks, in a single layer. I had to arrange them so that nothing would fall through, or hang below the rack and interfere with the spinning jets. As you can see, I used the flatware holders for some of the shorter celery racks.

Important: Use only the cold, rinse cycle with no detergent. I didn’t put any potatoes in this load, but I will next time. You’ll get the most efficiency by using all of the available space.

Results: Clean, although there was still some loose debris on some of the vegetables, so I will need to check each one. I blame this on the vagaries of my dishwasher, not the method. There’s a definite savings on water. As for time, It took several minutes to arrange the vegetables, but not as long as scrubbing each one.

Update: This should be obvious, but avoid washing sandy produce in the dishwasher as dirt can get stuck in the wheels.

Like this:

Related

Comments

That is so funny! I guess your dishwasher has a ‘cold wash and dry’ setting? Mine doesn’t…I guess this could be an additional time-saver as it would cook the vegetables as well!

My method is to fill up a dish-washing plastic bowl with cold water, add a couple of teaspoons of Sterili or other vegetable wash, add all the fruit and vegetables together, and then rinse them off after a few minutes, before drying on towels on the worktop or in the drying rack.

Actually you can wrap food in foil and cook it in the dishwasher. That will have to wait for a different post, I guess. The cycle I used rinses, but not dries. It’s intended to hold you over when dirty dishes sit for a couple of days until the machine is full.

WOW! just when I thought I couldn’t possibly use my dishwasher more than I already do! (PS I once whatched a show with GIl Hovav where he wrapped salmon in foil and cooked it in the dishwasher. I was cusious but did not try it….yet?

AidelMaidel: 1. If you don’t mind it on your dishes, you should be okay with it on your vegetables. 2. The rinse cycle only uses water, not the rinse agent. It’s meant to prevfill ent a bad odor when waiting to fill up the washer.

This may be practical for large families but I think a lot of produce doesn’t keep as long after it has been washed. I usually cook for 2, and I rinse produce for the same day or occasionally for 2 days.

Shalom Hannah!
This is Kathy, from “is chicken left out all night safe to eat?” fame. I am in the process of starting a blog called arthritisonthego where I will be looking at joint friendly ways to do tasks, among other topics.. Washing produce this way sounds wonderful for the many who have arthritis of the hands; I plan to link to this post after I try the method! 🙂

Hi Kathy!! I am excited about your new blog, as my mother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. This encouraged her to develop many of the techniques that I share on this site. She disliked dishwashers though, as bending down was quite difficult for her.

Get recipes and cooking tips right to your inbox

Search

Privacy Policy

About Me

I'm Hannah Katsman, mother of six. I wrote this site to help home cooks learn to make quick, healthy meals from easily available ingredients in less time. Aside from lots of recipes, at Cooking Manager you'll learn lots about different ingredients, efficient cooking techniques, and appliances. Read More…